Low educational level, poor motivation hinder youth employment in Bulgaria: Deputy PM

Ivailo Kalfin, Bulgaria's Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Labor and Social Policy, said here on Monday that low educational level and poor motivation hindered youth employment in the country.

"Youth unemployment in Bulgaria is around the average European level, but here is the largest percentage of people who are permanently outside the labor market and outside training," Kalfin said while addressing the high level roundtable "Youth Employment -- challenges and solutions" organized by the European Court of Auditors and the Bulgarian National Audit Office.

This meant that youth unemployment in Bulgaria and unemployment as a whole, were linked to structural problems, not with the current state of the economy, Kalfin said.

He said that according to a recent survey conducted by the State Employment Agency, some 13 percent of companies in Bulgaria intended to create new jobs in the next 12 months, and 70 percent of employers needed young people with secondary and secondary special education, 18 percent -- university graduates, and 12 percent -- people with low qualifications.

Meanwhile, the survey showed that 60 percent of employers thought that the knowledge obtained in the secondary school, particularly in secondary special school, was insufficient to start work, Kalfin said.

Furthermore, nearly half of the long-term unemployed young people in Bulgaria had very low education -- basic, and below, Kalfin said.

"This means that these people have no prospect of entering the labor market, unless they complete the relevant degree and acquire very good skills," Kalfin said.

Moreover, he said, unemployed young people had poor motivation to begin training or education because of the minimum wage of around 400 Bulgarian lev (some 229 U.S. dollars) that was difficult to awaken their interest. In addition, many young people lived with money sent by their parents who worked in other European countries, and this support was much greater than the minimum wage, Kalfin said.

According to Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union, the unemployment rate among young Bulgarians in April 2015 was 22.3 percent with the EU average of 20.7 percent, while the total unemployment rate stood at 10.1 percent and 9.7 percent respectively. Endit